Thursday, 3 June 2010

I was very honoured to be included in the line up for EMEA Harmony. This event was the first bringing together the user groups from Finland, Estonia, Russia and Latvia.

The entire event was held in English as that was the common language, something that humbled me, every attendee was fluent in English and was happy to interact in English, and I am normally proud of myself if I can order a beer abroad.

Estonia hosted this inaugural conference and had a lot of support from Oracle to promote the event. A favourite of UKOUG Tanel Poder is a native of Estonia although he currently lives in Singapore. He was given headline viewing along side Tom Kyte. I can only imagine how proud Tanel was to drive through his home town and see banners advertising his involvement in the event.

In these photos you can see Tanel presenting and the great Chris Date who needs very little introduction was also a headline act and gave a number of presentations around database theory.

To wrap up the first day another ACE Director Mogens Nørgaard gave his normal informal view of all things Oracle. From the possible introduction of RAC into other vendors databases to an amusing but serious look at the Oracle Licensing Police.

I hope I haven't left anybody out and I want to say a special thank you to the four user group leaders especially Heli Helskyaho and her family who were such wonderful hosts to me. Tallinn was a beautiful city and I really will go back one day.